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Why we’re more prone to car-sickness when we set off on holiday

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/william-emond-1431510">William Emond</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-de-technologie-de-belfort-montbeliard-2637">Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard</a></em></p> <p>Travel sickness isn’t just hearsay. Nearly <a href="https://www.autonomicneuroscience.com/article/S1566-0702(06)00212-8/fulltext">a third of people</a> experience motion sickness – and to this day we don’t exactly know what causes it. The prevailing theory suggests it is triggered by a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cns.12468">poor perception of movement</a>.</p> <p>Departure to and return from summer holidays seem moments especially prone to this sickness’ stealthy advances. We (or at least those of us inclined to travel sickness) are more often ill during these particular journeys than during our normal comings and goings.</p> <p>Let’s note too that lots of travellers feel a sense of fatigue, drowsiness, apathy or lack of energy without having done any particularly exhausting activity. These are in fact symptoms of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576598001532">mild motion sickness</a>, which show that many more people are affected by the condition than you’d think.</p> <p>Why this apparent heightened susceptibility during holiday trips? There are many reasons. Compared to normal travel, these journeys feature certain conditions, all with the potential to increase the incidence and severity of symptoms. Here are some pieces of explanation, and advice to minimise the risk.</p> <h2>Long journeys – repetition of movements that make you queasy</h2> <p>In a car, the further one travels, the more likely one is to feel ill, as shown by a number of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1243/0954407042580093">mathematical models which predict motion sickness</a>.</p> <p>It’s the adding up of unpleasant movements which takes us over the threshold where we feel symptoms. For certain people, this <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1566070206002128">can happen after just a few minutes</a>); for others it develops more slowly. Only on long journeys, after several hours on the road, in the air or on a boat, will this latter group be pushed over their limit and start feeling unwell.</p> <p>Activities undertaken to pass the time during a long journey could add to feelings of queasiness. Often people do something to occupy and entertain themselves: read a book, watch a film, play a video game or scroll through social media. Except, these visually stimulating activities absorb our attention to the point that we’re not tuned in to the visual cues that allows our brain to assess the movement of the vehicle. This creates a confusion in the perception of movement. As a result, it becomes <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141938214000043?via%3Dihub">much easier to feel sick</a>.</p> <h2>Journey conditions: risks adding up</h2> <p>In summer, the temperature inside a vehicle is difficult to control, with the sun often imposing a stifling heat; conditions which <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/asma/asem/2013/00000084/00000005/art00004">tend to accentuate the symptoms of motion sickness</a>.</p> <p>When it’s hot, <a href="https://theconversation.com/lesquels-de-nos-organes-sont-les-plus-menaces-par-la-canicule-119563">our body has to make an effort to regulate its temperature</a>, through sweat or breathing for example. These various signals amount to ‘primary symptoms’ as they can contribute to the appearance of other more substantive symptoms: dilation of the blood vessels, sickness, nausea or vomiting, as applicable.</p> <p>To counter these effects, one is tempted to switch the air conditioning on, which could itself, perversely, <a href="https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/environnement-et-sante/la-climatisation-rend-elle-malade_2885673.html">worsen the situation for passengers highly susceptible to motion sickness</a>. Ventilation and cabin air systems also push people toward their nausea thresholds.</p> <p>Unpleasant smells are another factor that can <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/asma/asem/2013/00000084/00000005/art00004">accentuate car sickness symptoms</a>: traffic fumes, cigarette smoke, fetid air or even <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00221-015-4209-9">the smell of leather</a> were identified as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847819306539">second most common cause of car sickness</a>! These are bigger risk factors at the start of holiday season, when <a href="https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/transports/trafic/vacances-les-vagues-de-departs-massifs-sont-associees-a-de-fortes-emissions-de-polluants_2839361.html">air pollution peaks regularly</a> and the sun’s rays heat up materials. It’s also known that there is a region of the brain – the area postrema or chemoreceptor trigger zone – which can trigger over-production of saliva and nausea specifically when certain smells are detected – a protective reflex against toxins and other poisonous substances.</p> <h2>Traffic: a physical and mental imposition</h2> <p>In a car, it isn’t speed that makes one ill but <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/001401399184730">changes in speed</a>, especially abrupt ones. Acceleration and breaking movements aggravate the human body, even more than turning corners.</p> <p>In practice, variations in speed are often forced on the driver by road design (speed limits, crossings, traffic lights), but also by the state of the traffic. A car stuck in jams will be forced to speed up and slow down at random intervals, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366836220_Effect_of_Horizontal_Acceleration_and_Seat_Orientation_on_Motion_Sickness_in_Passenger_Cars">which grates, even at low speeds</a>.</p> <p>Traffic jams also have a psychological element. Delays to a journey (which might already have been very long), anxiousness about arriving at the arranged time, which is looking less and less likely, tiredness, stress and irritation can all cause the passengers’ mood to crash. It’s been observed that these factors <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0018720819876139">significantly impact the degree of motion sickness symptoms</a>. It would be better to take these setbacks calmly and stay in a relaxed frame of mind but that’s of course easier said than done.</p> <h2>Some tips to limit the damage</h2> <p>If you’re driving with passengers with a tendency to be car sick, or you’re susceptible yourself, some adjustments to your travel habits might help you.</p> <p><strong>For the driver:</strong></p> <ul> <li> <p><em>Take regular breaks</em>. This allows passengers to take a breather, and to reduce to a significant extent or even get over their symptoms. Sometimes symptoms can take a while to disappear but <a href="https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-vestibular-research/ves7-6-01">generally 15-30 minutes is enough</a>.</p> </li> <li> <p><em>Try to cut down the amount of hard acceleration and braking you do</em>. Keep as far as possible to the same speed and adopt a smooth driving style, including when you overtake or brake.</p> </li> <li> <p><em>Avoid taking corners too sharply on winding roads.</em> Passengers should be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00140139.2015.1109713">jolted in their seats as little as possible</a>.</p> </li> </ul> <p><strong>For passengers</strong></p> <ul> <li> <p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/001401399184730"><em>Sit as far forward in the vehicle as possible</em></a>. Any movement while travelling is better absorbed by the body from this position. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00140139108964831">It’s in the driver’s seat that people are least affected by car sickness</a>, since one has control over the vehicle’s movement.</p> </li> <li> <p><em>Avoid looking at screens and other visual content (books, etc.)</em>, particularly when the vehicle isn’t moving at a constant speed. Instead, <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1348/000712699161594">try and look forward out of the window</a>, towards the horizon.</p> </li> <li> <p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00140139.2015.1109713"><em>Shut your eyes</em></a> or <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1976-12574-000"><em>try to sleep</em></a>. Slowing down activity soothes the body.</p> </li> <li> <p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-27928-8_26"><em>Tilt your seat back</em></a>. This allows you to be less destabilised by the vehicle’s movements</p> </li> <li> <p><em>Go for car games</em> with the other passengers if you get bored: play “I Spy”, <a href="https://theses.gla.ac.uk/80069/1/13905209.pdf">sing songs</a>, count cars of a particular colour or make, and other old favourites of proven effectiveness to help pass the time and, above all, <a href="http://iospress.com/articles/journal-of-vestibular-research/ves00541">take your attention away from the queasiness</a>. The emergence and disappearance of symptoms is mainly a psychological phenomenon.</p> </li> </ul> <p>Finally, given the role of the mind in car sickness symptoms, note that passengers experiencing queasiness can feel better with a placebo (something with no proven medicinal value but presented to them as a magic cure). Simple tips <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/5/2/89/1801039">have been shown to be particularly effective</a>. For example, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00221-021-06303-5">offering a sweet, a piece of chewing gum</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00221-017-5009-1">a sip of water or a breath of fresh air</a> while talking up their effectiveness will give your fellow travellers a little boost.</p> <p>We wish you happy travels, hoping your journey conditions are as good as they can be.</p> <hr /> <p><em>Translation from French to English by <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshNeicho">Joshua Neicho</a><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210338/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></em></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/william-emond-1431510">William Emond</a>, Doctorant en mal des transports (PhD Student on carsickness mitigation), <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-de-technologie-de-belfort-montbeliard-2637">Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-were-more-prone-to-car-sickness-when-we-set-off-on-holiday-210338">original article</a>.</em></p>

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Motion sickness: this might explain why some people feel sick in cars or on trains

<p>If you’re someone who suffers from motion sickness, travelling in many types of vehicles can be difficult thanks to a host of symptoms like dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea and even vomiting. But it’s not completely clear why some people can read and play games on their phone during a long drive while others spend the journey desperately trying not to be sick. Nor is it clear why some people only experience motion sickness in certain types of vehicles and not others. </p> <p>But there are two theories that might help explain what’s going on. </p> <p>The <a href="https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1139/y90-044">sensory conflict theory</a> proposes that a key player in motion sickness is our balance system. Balance is not maintained by just one single sensory organ. Rather, it combines what we’re seeing and feeling with information from the balance organ in our inner ears, which helps our balance system work out exactly where we are.</p> <p>If the information from our eyes, inner ears and touch or pressure senses doesn’t match up, it can make us feel off-balance or unsteady. This is why it’s thought that motion sickness is caused by a mismatch of information from our senses – with our eyes and inner ear telling our body that we’re moving, even though we’re actually sitting stationary. This is also why the <a href="https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1139/y90-044">less sensory mismatch we experience</a> in a vehicle, the less likely we are to experience motion sickness. For example, travelling in a car on a smooth, straight road will cause less sensory mismatch than travelling on a winding road with lots of potholes.</p> <p>This theory is currently considered the strongest explanation for motion sickness – though we’re still trying to understand the brain mechanisms that cause <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cns.12468">motion sickness</a>. </p> <p>An alternate (but related) theory suggests that it’s all down to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15326969eco0303_2?src=recsys">controlling posture</a>. According to this theory, motion sickness doesn’t happen just because of the mismatch of sensory information. Rather, it’s our inability to adjust our posture to reduce this mismatch of sensory information that makes us feel nauseous. While this makes sense – especially since we can’t always move around when travelling – there <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15326969eco0703_1">isn’t much evidence</a>to support this theory. </p> <h2>No single reason</h2> <p>Motion sickness affects people differently, and there’s no single reason why some people experience motion sickness more frequently than others. But differences in how well a person’s vision and balance systems work will affect how they may feel in different types of vehicles. Certain disorders – including migraines and inner ear diseases, such as Ménière’s disease – <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1566070206002128">increase the likelihood</a> of experiencing motion sickness. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1566070206002128">Age and sex</a> may also affect likelihood of experiencing motion sickness – with some research suggesting experiences peak around nine or ten years of age, and are more common in women. However, it is uncertain as to why this may be the case.</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1566070206002128">type of vehicle</a> people travel in will also have some affect on the amount of motion sickness a person may experience. Broadly, any factor that increases the mismatch between each of the senses that contribute to our balance system will increase the risk of motion sickness. The longer the experience lasts and the larger the size of the movement, the worse the symptoms. For example, travelling on a small boat in a storm for more than eight hours will cause quite severe symptoms – whereas a one-hour train journey will probably have little effect, even if the track isn’t perfectly smooth.</p> <p>Many people also report experiencing motion sickness when they’re a passenger – not when they’re driving a vehicle. This is probably because drivers are (unsurprisingly) much better at anticipating the motion of a vehicle and move their bodies according to the movement of the vehicle. For example, if a car travels around a sharp bend, the driver is going to be looking ahead and anticipating the movement of the car as they turn – while a passenger is likely to react as the turn happens by leaning in the opposite direction. </p> <p>Motion sickness also isn’t limited to the “real world”, with <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2677758.2677780?casa_token=Wni6ONyXbJsAAAAA:MgFIc_qg3Kos4-rIbVZQD_FfuRhmbuGqf4N6OO1rKuQitKBPbGJ7wxDbJJNEPPq0CryffMEmmPSc">cybersickness</a> another type of motion sickness that people get from the virtual environments, often when playing video games. This likely happens because of the sensory conflict of seeing the environment move on the screen while the body remains stationary. <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0056160">Watching films in 3D</a> at the cinema can prompt motion sickness for the same reason.</p> <p>If you’re someone who suffers from motion sickness, the best thing to do the next time you’re in a vehicle is try to reduce the mismatch of sensory information. So avoid reading in the car – as this causes a mismatch between what we’re seeing and what we’re feeling – and try to instead look out the window. This may help reduce nausea as the visual information now better matches the balance information in our the inner ear. The same is true for boats and trains – focusing on the passing landscape can reduce symptoms.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7048153">Other tips</a> to reduce motion sickness include not having a heavy meal before travel, ventilating the vehicle and taking regular stops (when possible). But if these tips aren’t enough to tackle symptoms, using an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/014556130608500110">anti-motion sickness medication</a> may help. These reduce activity in the balance system of the brain or reduce the number of signals the brain sends to the gut, which can help to stop nausea and vomiting.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/motion-sickness-this-might-explain-why-some-people-feel-sick-in-cars-or-on-trains-178087" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>

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Managing sickness when you’re on holidays

<p>Whether it’s a cold, nausea, headache, migraine or perhaps something even worse, nothing puts a damper on a well-deserved holiday like falling ill.</p> <p>If you feel like you’re becoming sick overseas it’s important you act fast.</p> <p>We’ve put together some tips for managing sickness when you’re on holidays. With a bit of planning you can be confident that sickness won’t derail your next trip.</p> <p><strong>1. Make sure you hydrate</strong></p> <p>If you’re battling illness on holidays, the worst thing you can do is let yourself become dehydrated. The problem is there are lots of travel situations where you’ll be a while between drinks, such as on a cold, dry plane or long guided tour. This is why it’s critical to make sure you keep your fluids up while you’re on holiday, to avoid dehydration. </p> <p><strong>2. Take advantage of your hotel’s amenities</strong></p> <p>If you’re feeling a little bit under the weather, sometimes it pays to take an afternoon off. Many people feel compelled to soldier on, but going out when you’re not healthy is actually doing you more harm than good. Have a hot shower, ask for some extra pillows and blankets and take advantage of your hotel’s amenities as you rest up.</p> <p><strong>3. Get medical attention</strong></p> <p>If you’re sick overseas and you feel as though you’re getting worse, it might be an idea to seek medical attention. This is why travel insurance is so important when you’re venturing overseas. Be sure to ask hotel desk staff to assist you with finding and appropriate doctor, and make sure you take your travel insurance documents along with you.</p> <p>Have you ever been sick overseas, or know someone who has been? How did this affect your travel plans and how did you manage?</p> <p>We'd love to hear your story, so please let us know in the comments below.</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><a href="/travel/travel-tips/2016/03/teen-saves-flying-sheffield-to-essex-via-germany/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em>Teen saves money by flying from Sheffield to Essex via Germany</em></strong></span></a></p> <p><a href="/travel/travel-tips/2016/05/controversial-idea-to-shorten-airport-queues/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Controversial idea to shorten airport queues</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/travel/travel-tips/2016/05/5-ways-to-avoid-being-stuck-in-the-middle-seat/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>5 ways to avoid the middle seat on planes</strong></em></span></a></p>

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